L124C, sorry, but this 150+ post diatribe on West is a little over the top for me and Iím not wasting a whole lot time plumbing itís depths for true meaning and nuance. I apologize for not hanging on every word youíve written on this subject. I am impressed however, that you would travel from the Peninsula over to Richmond (the meth capital of Alameda county) to buy a toilet seat. And, to go down to Watsonville to corporate to complain. Impressive. Iím sorry to hear that you are not that impressed with KKMI, they do have the reputation for being the premier boatyard in Northern California. Have you talked to Keefe or Kaplan about the level of service in their chandlery? Iím afraid that you wouldn'tít be too happy with Svendsenís counter service either. Like most folkís, I shop for bargains the best I can and I seek advice from the most knowledgeable people I can find. I just donít get hung up about it if I canít get both in the same venue.

I take back the respect I gave you, as it has become obvious none was due. "Plumb the depths"? How about simply reading the posts you are criticizing before making suggestions that have already been covered? If you don't want to at least do that, probably best not to post.
I never indicated I bought the seat from Whale or "drove" to WM's HQ. I emailed West Marine, including pictures of an aisle with approximately 30% empty bins where products were supposed to be. As I recall, they were out of 3M 5200 for about 3 weeks (pretty basic item for a Marine store, don't ya think?).
BTW...Don't know what "Meth" has to do with the thread, but your beloved KKMI ("the premier boatyard") is across the street from Whale Marine... Deep in the heart of Meth Central (according to you). WM also has a store there. Oh, wait a minute...in reviewing your response, I think I may see relevance of Meth...rather speedy, without much thought!
Please...think before you post!

Sorry to rub you the wrong way. I thought a little sarcasm would have illustrated my point in a humorous way. Obviously, you feel very strongly about whatever West did or did not do for you. If you don’t like them, don’t shop there. I don’t shop at places that I don’t like either and in that way we are the same. I don’t want to be antagonistic but is it the San Carlos store that you have had trouble with? I don’t know if you know the back story behind West’s recent stock prices, but a while back they had some problems with distribution, warehousing and too many locations after they bought out BoatUS. To get out of their financial bind, they are reduced inventory and are making each store more specialized in order to improve turn-over. For example, the Alameda store has a complete rig shop and is very sail boat and cruiser centric. This increased competition has even made Svendsen’s lower their prices. I believe San Carlos is more for the speedboat/fishing set and that might explain why the little store bunny wasn’t up on her AYBC codes. You may not like the business model, but it has improved their stock position (of which I’m glad, being a stockholder and all that.) They might be bigger than the mom and pop chandleries but they are by no means dominant enough to control supplier prices. Again, I didn’t mean to make you so upset. On a side note I was going to call Richmond the murder capital of Alameda County, but I think that Oakland leads in the body count so far this year.

What percentage upcharge would you say WM is "ripping off" their customer by? 10%, 20%, 30?

They had $640 million in net revenue last year. If that only contained 5% up charging, that would be over $30 million. I suspect most think they upcharge by more, so make the excess revenue whatever you like.

The point is, that is greater than the entirely of all executive compensation combined by many times over.

The higher pricing is paying for stores and inventory, not compensation.

Person asks if they can help. Person is unable to answer question. Person asks associate if they know. Associate doesn't know. They then look up item in catalog to determine proper answer to question. Find and answer the question. Customer leaves with what he wanted.

And the problem here is ... just what is the problem anyway? Sounds like an excellent example of customer service.

Yes, Worst Marine carries a lot of various things, for all kinds of systems. I don't think you can expect all associates to be versed in all items in the store. I used to work in the Plumbing Department in Home Depot, and I often had to fill in other departments (especially electrical) and had no clue, but did as these associates did and found the correct answer when I did not know it. Sounds like you should be giving props instead of complaining. She could have done the easy thing and just say yes. That is likely what will get in a best buy or someplace like that.

I have actually had the opposite experience. I am looking at boats and after looking at one at a local broker who also runs a chandelry, I asked the owner's wife a question about composting heads, and all she could tell me was that they did not carry them. Nothing about if the worked and she did not even offer to check there suppliers to see if she could order one. Later that same day I walked into West Marine and asked the same question to the first person who came up to me, and he was able to tell me that he knew of people who loved them, and then said "we don't carry them but we can get them through our special order department, got one last month."

So I guess YMMV is in order. I still would rather go through a local guy, or order on line, but I have found the staff at the local WM to be good, well I did see someone help change out a CO2 cartridge in an inflatable vest and did it wrong and watched it deploy right there! That was funny! Till he realized it was the last cartridge they had for that vest.

Seems many of the folks working there are really there for the discount. I have talked to a few working there that were working there for the flexible schedule while they finished up prepping there boat for cruising. I ma sure the discount came in handy!

What percentage upcharge would you say WM is "ripping off" their customer by? 10%, 20%, 30?
They had $640 million in net revenue last year. If that only contained 5% up charging, that would be over $30 million. I suspect most think they upcharge by more, so make the excess revenue whatever you like.
The point is, that is greater than the entirely of all executive compensation combined by many times over.
The higher pricing is paying for stores and inventory, not compensation.

When I had a Port Supply card (more accurately, a girlfriend with a PS card) items were generally 40 - 50% off retail (damn...in retrospect, maybe I should have kept her around!). I assume WM was still making profit on the PS customer, and obviously 50% more on the retail customer. The Whale Point/Ace guy was making a profit at $30, and WM was selling the same product for $80+.
I believe the profit margin in the grocery business is generally 3% (for example). Obviously the grocery industry has MUCH more volume than WM.
However, the also have large outlets to maintain, distribution costs and compensate their clerks much better than WM (in the bay area anyway).

Placed an order with this place yesterday. Covered about 3 projects at once, including an item the local chandlery couldn't get and a custom battery cable I've been looking for for years! Shipped the same day (FREE SHIPPING, no minimum)! Thanks for the recommendation!

See...another boat owner gets taken to the bank and is proud of it. No worries about WM going out of business anytime soon! In fairness, I'm assuming you have Port Supply, right Mainsail? Good luck with the Raymarine gear, but thats another thread!

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